THE MAKING OF a POSTMODERN CELEBUTANTE HOW PARIS HILTON’S PUBLIC PERSONA IS CONSTRUCTED = SỰ tạo THÀNH NGƯỜI NỔI TIẾNG hậu HIỆN đại HÌNH ẢNH PARIS HILTON TRƯỚC CÔNG CHÚNG

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS & CULTURES OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES *** GRADUATION PAPER THE MAKING OF A POSTMODERN CELEBUTANTE: HOW PARIS HILTON’S PUBLIC PERSONA IS CONSTRUCTED Supervisor: Nguyễn Thanh Hà, Ph.D Student: Lưu Lan Phương Course: QH2017.E1.SPCLC HÀ NỘI – 2021 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA NGƠN NGỮ & VĂN HĨA CÁC NƯỚC NĨI TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP SỰ TẠO THÀNH NGƯỜI NỔI TIẾNG HẬU HIỆN ĐẠI: HÌNH ẢNH PARIS HILTON TRƯỚC CÔNG CHÚNG Giáo viên hướng dẫn: TS Nguyễn Thanh Hà Sinh viên: Lưu Lan Phương Khóa: QH2017.E1.SPCLC HÀ NỘI – 2021 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Lưu Lan Phương, QH2017.E1, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Date ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Thanh Hà The completion of my paper would not have been possible without her unwavering guidance, invaluable insight, constructive criticism and unparalleled dedication Despite my severe lack of experience and knowledge about the field of qualitative research, she has always shown me unfailing patience, encouragement and kindness that have become one of my biggest motivations to overcome such a challenging experience Thank you for believing in me even when I could not the same to myself I would also like to extend my appreciation to my friends: Trang, Hà Anh and Hà Linh for their emotional support, tremendous assistance and positive affirmations Without their nurturing and sympathetic companionship, I would not have the mental strength to carry on with this research Last but not least, I am deeply indebted to my parents as they have fostered my resilience and determination ever since I was a child Despite our distance and generational differences, they have continuously provided me with the highest level of compassion, faith and encouragement throughout this process i ABSTRACT Paris Hilton, one of the most controversial figures in the American show business since the early 2000s, is commonly regarded as a “celebutante” – someone who possesses both fame and fortune with the absence of talents or achievements to justify her status Despite the skepticism and criticism, Hilton’s lasting appeal continues to exceed expectations and has recently brought about a reckoning of her role as a powerful cultural and media icon This paper examines the making of Paris Hilton as a postmodern phenomenon with a focus on the construction of her public personas Central to this study is the concept of postmodern identity, which is neither stable nor unified but multiple, fluid, even contradictory, and devoid of depth Through analysis of the reality show The Simple Life, I argue that Hilton’s “dumb blonde heiress” persona is a reinvention of the traditional dumb blonde stereotype: It is her wealth and status that makes her ignorant, which positions her as an object of both scorn and envy Moreover, her robust presence across different types of media embodies an assemblage of contrasts, including both innocent girliness and hypersexual femininity, both a high-class, glamorous socialite’s life and problematic, scandalous, and publicly humiliating experiences Finally, comparison of her 2004 memoir Confessions of an Heiress and 2020 documentary This Is Paris suggests an evolution of a tenuous relationship with authenticity, in which sincerity and vulnerability have now replaced irony and artifice but instead of undoing the previous personas and revealing her ‘true’ self, they add another layer to the multiplicity of her public presentation Paris Hilton as a brand, which has been methodically crafted and thrived on audience’s emotions, has participated in creating a new mode of celebrity and being in our postmodern media culture ii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Paris Hilton in ODDA’s editorial 32 Figure Paris Hilton with her pink Bentley 34 Figure Paris Hilton’s photoshoot with David LaChapelle for Vanity Fair 36 Figure Paris Hilton’s cover photo for Runway magazine 39 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii LIST OF FIGURES iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study 1.2 Statement of research problem and significance 1.3 Theoretical perspective and mode of inquiry 1.4 Overview of the chapters CHAPTER BACKGROUND ISSUES 2.1 Postmodern media 8 2.1.1 The rise of postmodern media 2.1.2 Baudrillard’s simulacra and simulation 2.2 Postmodern identity 10 2.2.1 Identity before postmodernism 10 2.2.2 The postmodern identity 12 2.3 Postmodernism and celebrities 13 2.3.1 The postmodern celebrity 13 2.3.2 Paris Hilton’s career: An overview 14 2.3.3 Paris Hilton as a postmodern celebutante 16 CHAPTER ‘THE SIMPLE LIFE’ AND PARIS HILTON’S DUMB BLONDE PERSONA 18 3.1 Reality television: History and characteristics 18 3.2 Dumb blondes in history 23 3.3 Paris Hilton’s in The Simple Life 26 CHAPTER PARIS HILTON AS AN ASSEMBLAGE OF PARADOXICAL PERSONAS 31 4.1 Innocent girliness and hypersexualization 31 4.2 Socialite and white trash 37 CHAPTER PARIS HILTON’S RELATIONSHIP WITH AUTHENTICITY: A TWENTY-YEAR EVOLUTION 42 5.1 Confessions of an Heiress and the rejection of authenticity 42 5.2 This Is Paris and the performance of authenticity 46 CHAPTER CONCLUDING REMARKS: PARIS HILTON PERFORMING CULTURE AND GENDER 55 6.1 Postmodern media culture, the rise of Paris Hilton, and a new model of postmodern celebrity 55 6.2 Paris Hilton and the embodiment of postfeminism 57 6.3 Limitations of the research 58 REFERENCES 60 CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study “Celebutante” is a blend between “celeb-”, as in “celebrity”, and “-butante”, as in “debutante” While celebrity refers to a person or a state associated with fame and notoriety (Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.), “debutante” alludes to “a rich young woman who, especially in the past in Britain, went to a number of social events as a way of being introduced to other young people of high social rank” (Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.) The term “celebutante” was coined in 1939 by Walter Winchell to characterize the infamous party girl Brenda Frazier as he described her social status and lifestyle (Brown, 2008) During the 1980s, newspaper articles and television utilized “celebutante” in reference to the “club kids'' whose undeserved fame in New York’s nightlife scene stemmed from their club appearances, party fashion, and drug use (Brown, 2008) This increasing media usage cast a disparaging overtone on the public’s interpretation of the term, which Winchell originally intended to be an “unambiguous praise” (Brown, 2008, p 316) Such connotation remained during the term’s resurgence in the early 2000s as it was used to criticize the growing notoriety of Paris Hilton following the release of her reality show (Brown, 2008; Smith, 2005) By constantly addressing Hilton with this term, the media questioned her status, implying not only “unmerited fame but also vacuousness, misused privilege, hyperconsumerism” (Brown, 2008, p.317) This label has proved to be a double-edged sword On the one hand, it undermines Hilton’s potential and achievement, preventing her from being respected as a celebrity, an entrepreneur, and a businesswoman On the other hand, the “dumb blonde heiress” image that, according to her, is merely one of her meticulously crafted personas became the foundation on which she built her personal brand, and consequently, her multi-million-dollar business empire (Bell, 2020) Although in recent years, she has not been mentioned in mainstream headlines as much as she did at the height of her career, Paris Hilton remains a fixture in American pop culture In addition to her frequent collaborations with the biggest social media influencers, her trademarked phrase “That’s hot!” has reemerged on Tik Tok in the form of lip-syncing videos, gaining a combined total of around 5.4 billion views as of November 2020 She has amassed tens of millions of followers across all her platforms, on which various aspects of her lifestyle and unique aesthetic are constantly pictured and shared, inspiring the followers and captivating their interest After more than two decades since the onset of her career, the longevity of Paris Hilton’s celebrity continues to exceed expectations On September 14, 2020, a documentary titled The Real Story of Paris Hilton | This Is Paris was premiered on Paris Hilton’s official YouTube channel and quickly took the world by storm It accumulated millions of views within days of the premiere and proved, once again, her lasting appeal The film starts with footage of the pop culture icon as she walks into a recording studio, wearing her velour tracksuit and oversize sunglasses, holding several hot pink designer bags on one hand and her precious chihuahua Diamond on the other One merely needs to have the slightest interest in media culture to recognize such an aesthetic, as hundreds of thousands of Hilton’s images have been constantly plastered all over every media outlet for almost two decades This initial sense of familiarity intensifies when she records herself reading the documentary title in her infamous baby voice, which can be described as a unique mixture of vocal fry and high-pitched valley girl accent During the forty-five-second intro, she swiftly switches between such a character voice and her adult voice multiple times to find the best-sounding snippet This can be seen as a fitting metaphor for the multiplicity and complexity of her public personas Despite the fact that Paris Hilton’s unconventional rise to fame and excessive media presence was initially the target of public criticism and scrutiny, during the 2010s the media started to acknowledge her monumental influence on popular her own spoiled heiress facade to embrace authenticity, or at least the performance of authenticity, Paris Hilton has satisfied the viewers’ desire for the truth, putting her name in the spotlight once again However, it is important to note that the revelation of Hilton’s behind-the-scenes persona does not necessarily guarantee a complete departure from her original brand, which can be implied from several moments in the film For instance, when she either talks to her fans, appeases her then-boyfriend during a heated conflict, or apologizes to Nicky for being late, she consciously switches to her famous baby voice, which is a known staple of her dumb-blonde persona At the end of the documentary, upon being asked about whether she would retire her brand since her secrets are now out in the world Without hesitation, Hilton turns down such an idea, stating that “It will be an expensive divorce” (Dean, 2020, 1:41:33) and “I'll just be like this forever” (1:41:49) Her response insinuates that This Is Paris is not exactly an attempt to rebrand herself as a completely different person, but rather an introduction to a new side of Hilton that co-exists with her iconic image, adding another layer to the multiplicity of her public personas 54 CHAPTER CONCLUDING REMARKS: PARIS HILTON PERFORMING CULTURE AND GENDER 6.1 Postmodern media culture, the rise of Paris Hilton, and a new model of postmodern celebrity The context of postmodern media culture, which is characterized by the excessive production, distribution, consumption of images (Barron, 2018), is crucial to the popularization of Paris Hilton’s personal brand Her public image can be considered a media product manufactured and magnified by multifaceted forces To begin with, it is the 2000s’ tabloid culture that first brought Hilton into the spotlight and helped sustain her prominent place within the postmodern media landscape The paparazzi were invested in capturing the teenaged socialite experiencing New York’s club scene, and the thirst for her photographs was further intensified to an extreme after The Simple Life The press was, and still is to a certain extent, exploitative in the sense that they spared no means to report about and capitalize on not only her public presence but also her private and vulnerable moments The proliferation of these images has created a hyperreality in which the distinction between reality and the representation of reality starts fading, leading the audience to perceive Hilton as the media’s portrayal of her Another contributor to the success of Paris Hilton’s brand is the people behind the scenes Jason Moore, her former manager, is credited as “The man who ‘made’ Paris Hilton” (Goodman, 2011) since he, equipped with combined expertise in media and pop culture, was the mastermind behind many successful marketing strategies for the brand For instance, his idea of trademarking Hilton’s catch phrase - “That’s hot” worked wonders to increase brand recognition (Goodman, 2011), as evidenced by the fact that social media users still use and make reference to it two decades later Sheeraz Hasan, a famous media strategist for A-list celebrities, also played a crucial role in Hilton’s rise to fame as he worked closely with the paparazzi 55 to make her names a fixture in the tabloid news cycle In This Is Paris, he reminisces about his success, stating that “I built the foundation of one of the biggest paparazzi companies in the world on the back of Paris Hilton” (Dean, 2020, 23:38) Moore, Hasan, and others from Hilton’s team managed to build her into a commercially optimized brand that thrived on a variety of media formats, making the public unable to escape her presence However, it is important to acknowledge the most significant stakeholder of the Paris Hilton brand: the celebutante herself and her agency in the creation of her public personas Throughout her career, Hilton has proven to be a savvy user of the media and its ever-changing landscape As technology evolves and consequently produces different modes of seeing and engaging, she is always willing to adapt to such changes, taking on different roles such as singer, model, movie star, DJ, and businesswoman It is her ability to be flexible and embrace the conventions of various media forms that secures her place as a fixture in American culture, maintaining a ubiquitous presence that infiltrates most areas in the entertainment industry Moreover, by methodically crafting a multiplicity of public personas, Hilton has succeeded in making the audience emotionally involved in her brand and gaining their attention as a result To be specific, Hilton’s characterization as a dumb-blond heiress, who is characterized by the ostentatious display of inherited wealth and status, entitled attitude, and lack of common sense about the world, provokes class resentment, enticing the majority of viewers to consume her content for the purpose of criticism To some others, the element of overt sexuality positions her as a subject of desire Similarly, she also exploits the promise of authenticity to satisfy the audience’s demand for voyeuristic pleasure Indeed, Hilton holds a significant level of agency regarding her representations in the public’s eyes Although the media has tirelessly attempted to victimize her for her lifestyle and inappropriate behaviors, Hilton has consistently managed to gain certain control over the narrative 56 The rise of Paris Hilton signifies a new model of postmodern celebrity whose identity is “actively and continually created and re-created as a theatrical activity, a process of perpetual role-playing and incessant image construction” in order to thrive in the context of postmodern media culture (Barron, 2018, p 63; Kellner, 1992) Such a celebrity’s self becomes a media product that is subjected to reproduction, commodification, and consumption Their fame flourishes in a hyperreality where their constructed brand transcends themselves as real people, constituting an enduring cultural myth This new model embodies the blurred boundaries between high and low culture, as exemplified by Hilton’s paradoxical yet interwoven public personas However, unlike other recognized postmodern figures of the time such as Madonna and Lady Gaga, this up-and-coming generation of celebrities is not confined to one entertainment genre Instead, they can explore, experiment, and identify with a wide range of roles in the industry, making their presence ubiquitous in postmodern media culture 6.2 Paris Hilton and the embodiment of postfeminism Paris Hilton’s performance of gender encapsulates the essence of postfeminisim This movement can be considered “the active disavowal of feminism as a necessary politics,” despite sharing a number of core values with liberal feminism such as women’s agency and independence (Banet-Weiser, 2018, p 153) In addition, postfeminism also puts a major focus on other factors, namely individualism, empowerment, the freedom of women’s sexuality, as well as the reemergence and acceptance of “natural gender difference” (Gill, 2007, p 159) In the postfeminist culture, women are encouraged to explore their roles in society instead of conforming to either patriarchal or feminist structures (Banet-Weiser, 2018) Paris Hilton, without the need to explicitly announce her sociopolitical stance, has manifested prominent features of postfeminist ideology through the way her brand is constructed Her girly Barbie persona is a case in point Its overt and shameless display of hyper-femininity indicates that Hilton not only follows but also pushes 57 the presentation of binary gender norms to an extreme Rather than challenging the traditional social expectations about her gender, she fully indulges in them, showing the world that she is proud of and comfortable with her feminine identity Hilton is also comfortable with, and in control of her sexuality She is fully aware of the audience’s voyeuristic desire for her body, and therefore, she does not hesitate to allow and take part in its commodification It is her active engagement in the representation and monetization of her sex appeal that transforms Hilton from a sexual object to a sexual subject with a heightened level of agency and freedom (Gill, 2007) In a true postfeminist fashion, Hilton’s entire brand is a message of women empowerment Her success in various roles within and outside of the entertainment industry assures the audience that there is no limit to a woman’s identity, and they too can be whoever they want to, as long as they dare to dream The revelation of her past in This Is Paris magnifies the significance of such a message since it positions her as a survivor of abuse who achieves success despite her trauma and uses her influence to empower other victims The celebration of girl power remains a stable of Hilton’s brand in the age of social media, as she continues to spread the positive message by means of her own hashtag: #sliving Resulted from a blend between the word slaying and living, the slang is used when a person is “glamorously successful, self-empowered, and fulfilled—they are “killing it” all on their own, loving every minute of it, and lookin' good while doing it” (Urban Dictionary, n.d.) 6.3 Limitations of the research My research is subjected to a number of limitations Firstly, there is a lack of academic interest regarding Paris Hilton as a postmodern phenomenon While researchers have extensively contextualized and analyzed well-known postmodern celebrities such as Madonna, Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Donald Trump, Paris Hilton’s rise to fame and enduring career in the context of postmodern media culture have been largely overlooked in academia As a result, 58 there was limited opportunity for me to directly engage with scholarly works specifically focusing on Paris Hilton Secondly, another limitation stems from my selection of Hilton-related artifacts To be specific, I opted for media texts that can be considered critical milestones in Paris Hilton’s career, which tend to amass widespread media coverage or provoke major controversies This selection method, therefore, might be subjected to personal bias Given Paris Hilton’s robust media presence and long career, it is entirely possible that I have overlooked important artifacts and that a different researcher would have chosen a different collection of texts Finally, my argument that Paris Hilton exemplifies and helps construct the contemporary postmodern media culture is only one interpretation among many possible ones Although I find Paris Hilton extremely intriguing, my study does not aim to advocate for or condemn the subject Rather, it offers an analytical lens to attend to the particularities and complexities of Paris Hilton as a media phenomenon 59 REFERENCES Allan, A J (2009) The importance of being a ‘lady’: Hyper‐femininity and heterosexuality in the private, single‐sex primary school Gender and Education, 21(2), 145–158 https://doi.org/10.1080/09540250802213172 Angus, I (1989) Media beyond representation In I Angus & S Jhally (Eds.), Cultural politics in contemporary America (pp 333–346) Routledge Baker, S (2003) From Dragnet to Survivor: Historical and cultural perspectives on reality television In M J Smith & A F Wood (Eds.), Survivor lessons: Essays on communication and reality television (pp 57–72) McFarland and Company, Inc Banet-Weiser, S (2018) Postfeminism and popular feminism Feminist Media Histories, 4(2), 152–156 https://doi.org/10.1525/fmh.2018.4.2.152 Banner, L W (2012) Marilyn: The passion and the paradox Bloomsbury USA Barron, L (2018) Postmodern theories of celebrity In A Elliott (Ed.), Routledge handbook of celebrity studies Routledge Barsam, R (1973) Nonfiction film: A critical history Indiana University Press Bartholomew, M (2011) A right is born: Celebrity, property, and postmodern lawmaking Connecticut Law Review, 44(2), 301–368 Baruh, L (2010) Mediated voyeurism and the guilty pleasure of consuming reality television Media Psychology, 13(3), 201–221 https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2010.502871 Baudrillard, J (1972) Requiem for Media The New Media Reader http://shmacek.faculty.noctrl.edu/Courses/MediaCritSyllabusSPR2_files/19 -baudrillard-03.pdf Baudrillard, J (1994) Simulacra and simulation University of Michigan Press 60 Bell, K (2020, September 15) Paris Hilton on her revealing new documentary: “I’m not a dumb blonde I’m just really good at pretending to be one” Vogue https://www.vogue.com/article/paris-hilton-talks-about-her-new-documentary Blackston-Cail, K (2007) Issues of blondeness: Identity, education, and experience Electronic Theses and Dissertations https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/497 Boorstin, D J (1992) The image: A guide to pseudo-events in America Vintage Books Brown, D W (2008) Paris Hilton, Brenda Frazier, blogs, and the proliferation of celebu In American Speech (Vol 83, pp 312–325) https://read.dukeupress.edu/american-speech/article/83/3/312-325/5824 Calvert, C (2000) Voyeur nation: Media, privacy and peering in modern culture Westview Press Cambridge Dictionary (n.d.) Debutante In Cambridge Dictionary https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/debutante Chowdhury, A (2016) Is bitcoin the “Paris Hilton” of the currency world? Or are the early investors onto something that will make them rich? Journal of Investing, 25(1), 64-72 https://epublications.marquette.edu/econ_fac/578 Clissold, B (2004) Candid Camera and the origins of reality TV: Contextualising a historical precedent In S Holmes & D Jermyn (Eds.), Understanding reality television (pp 252–270) Routledge Cummings, D (2002) Introduction In D Cummings (Ed.), Reality TV: How real is real? (pp 67–70) Hodder & Stoughton Dean, A (2020) This Is Paris [Documentary] United States: YouTube Originals Retrieved from https://youtu.be/wOg0TY1jG3w 61 Deguzman, K (2020, August 3) How the handheld shot changes everything StudioBinder https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/handheld-shot-in-film- definition-examples/ Dickerson, A (2012) Nothing but the truth and the whole truthiness: Examining markers of authenticity in the modern documentary Master's Theses and Graduate Research DOI: https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.xa9f-dgzx Dovey, J (2000) Freakshow: First person media and factual television Pluto Press Driscoll, C (1999) Girl culture, revenge and global capitalism: Cybergirls, riot girls, spice girls Australian Feminist Studies, 14(29), 173– 193 Dyer, R (1991) A star is born and the construction of authenticity Routledge https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203400425-19 Dyer, R (2004) Heavenly bodies: Film stars and society Routledge Foster, D (2004) “Jump in the pool”: The competitive culture of Survivor fan networks In S Holmes & D Jermyn (Eds.), Understanding reality television (pp 270–290) Routledge Fredrickson, B L., & Roberts, T A (1997) Objectification theory: Toward understanding women’s lived experiences and mental health risks Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21(2), 173–206 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x Fredrickson, B L., Roberts, T A., Noll, S M., Quinn, D M., & Twenge, J M (1998) That swimsuit becomes you: Sex differences in self-objectification, restrained eating, and math performance Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 269–284 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.1.269 Gallagher, M M (2015) John Berger, Paris Hilton, and the rich kids of Instagram: The social and economic inequality of image sharing and production of power through self-promotion Scripps Senior Theses http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/545 62 Gardyn, R (2001) The tribe has spoken American Demographics, 23(9), 34–40 Gergen, K (1992) The decline and fall of personality Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/articles/199211/the-decline-and-fallpersonality Giddens, A (1991) Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age Stanford University Press Gill, R (2007) Postfeminist media culture: Elements of a sensibility European Journal of Cultural Studies, 10(2), 147–166 https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549407075898 Gleeson, K., & Frith, H (2004) Pretty in pink: Young women presenting mature sexual identities In A Harris (Ed.), All about the girl: Culture, power, and identity Psychology Press Goodman, A (2011) The man who “made” Paris Hilton CNN Digital https://www.cnn.com/2011/11/02/showbiz/celebrity-news-gossip/jason-mooreon-paris-hilton/index.html Greenwood, N (2012) Tranny trivia: The question of identity in a postmodern world University of Technology of Sydney Gross, D (1992) The past in ruins: Tradition and the critique of modernity, The University of Massachusetts Press Gurvis, S (2011) Paris Hilton A Biography Greenwood Biographies Hall, S (1992) The question of cultural identity In T McGrew, S Hall, & D Held (Eds.), Modernity and its futures (pp 273–327) Open Univ Press Harms, John B., & Dickens, D R (1996) Postmodern media studies: Analysis or symptom? Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 13(3), 210–227 https://doi.org/10.1080/15295039609366976 63 Harrison, C., & Wood, P (2001) Art in theory, 1900-1990: An anthology of changing ideas Blackwell Harvey, D (1990) The condition of postmodernity Blackwell Hill, A (2002) Big Brother: The real audience Television and New Media, 3(3), 323–340 Hill, A (2005) Reality TV: Audiences and popular factual television Routledge Hilton, P., & Ginsberg, M (2004) Confessions of an heiress: A tongue-in-chic peek behind the pose Touchstone Hirschfeld, M (1938) Sexual anomalies and perversions: Physical and psychological development, diagnosis and treatment Encyclopaedic Press Holland, S., & Harpin, J (2015) Who is the ‘girly’ girl? Tomboys, hyper-femininity and gender Journal of Gender Studies, 24(3), 293–309 https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2013.841570 Jameson, F (1984) Postmodernism, or, the cultural logic of late capitalism New Left Review https://newleftreview.org/issues/i146/articles/fredric-jameson- postmodernism-or-the-cultural-logic-of-late-capitalism Jenkins, H (1988) Star Trek rerun, reread, rewritten: Fan writing as textual poaching Critical Studies Mass Communication, 5(2), 85–107 Jones, J M (2003) Show your real face: A fan study of the UK big brother transmissions (2000, 2001, 2002) Investigating the boundaries between notions of consumers and producers of factual television New Media & Society, 5(3), 400–421 https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448030053006 Jung, C G (1967) Collected works of C.G Jung, volume 7: Two essays in analytical psychology Princeton University Press Kaplan, I (2020, September 12) Who is Paris Hilton, really? The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/12/style/paris-hilton-documentary.html 64 Kavka, R (2003) A different kind of paradise: Reality television in New Zealand Metro, (136), 68–72 Kellner, D (1992) Popular culture and the construction of postmodern identities In S Lash, J Friedman (Eds.), Modernity and Identity (pp 141–178) Blackwell Kellner, D (2009) Media spectacle and media events: Some critical reflections In N Couldry, A Hepp, & F Krotz (Eds.), Media Events in a Global Age Routledge https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203872604-15 Khosravishakib, M (2012) The contributions of postmodernism methodology as a prevailing practice on ground of humanities sciences International Journal of Arts, 2(1), 1-5 Kuhn, A (1994) The Women’s Companion to International Film University of California Press Lapidos, J (2010) When Did Blondes Get So Dumb? The history of hair-color prejudice Slate http://www.slate.com/id/2269858/ Lewin, P (2015) Embodying the postmodern self: Ecstatic ritual as a new mode of youth identity work In T Müller (Ed.), Studies in Symbolic Interaction (Vol 44, pp 161– 195) Emerald Group Publishing Limited https://doi.org/10.1108/S0163239620150000044008 Logan, J (1978) Movie stars, real people, and me Delacorte Press Lyotard, J F (1984) The Postmodern Condition University of Minnesota Press Malpas, S (2005) The postmodern Routledge Marshall, P D., & Barbour, K (2015) Persona as method: Exploring celebrity and the public self through persona studies Celebrity Studies, 6(3), 288–305 https://doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2015.1062649 65 Mcdermott, A (2018) How World War II empowered women History https://www.history.com/news/how-world-war-ii-empowered-women Metzl, J (2004) From scopophilia to Survivor: A brief history of voyeurism Textual Practice, 18(3), 415–434 https://doi.org/10.1080/09502360410001732935 Mombrun, R (2007) Let’s protect our economy and democracy from Paris Hilton: The case for keeping the estate tax Ohio Northern University Law Review, 33, 61 Moran, J (2018) How Paris Hilton invented the social media star Paper Magazine https://www.papermag.com/paris-hilton-american-meme2563903322.html?rebelltitem=6#rebelltitem6 Nayar, P K (2009) Seeing stars: Spectacle, society and celebrity culture SAGE Publications Nichols, B (2001) Introduction to documentary, third edition Indiana University Press Paechter, C (2010) Tomboys and girly-girls: Embodied femininities in primary schools Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 31(2), 221–235 https://doi.org/10.1080/01596301003679743 Penzhorn, H., & Pitout, M (2007) A critical-historical genre analysis of reality television Communication, 33(1), 62–76 https://doi.org/10.1080/02500160701398995 Petrarca, E (2017) Paris Hilton invented everything you’re doing in 2017, and she knows it W Magazine https://www.wmagazine.com/story/paris-hilton-interview/ Pitman, J (2003) On Blondes Bloomsbury Real, E (2018) Paris Hilton on Tribeca Doc “The American Meme” and social media: ‘I created that genre of celebrity’ The Hollywood Reporter https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/paris-hilton-american-meme-docfame-social-media-tribeca-film-festival-2018-1106214 66 Redmalm, D (2014) Holy bonsai wolves: Chihuahuas and the Paris Hilton syndrome International Journal of Cultural Studies, 17(1), 93–109 https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877912464539 Robbins, K (2008) Theorizing It: Paris Hilton, the celebutante, and the It girl lifestyle Brock University Ryan, L (2004) Television week—Television and media news https://web.archive.org/web/20040215040316/http://www.tvweek.com/topstorys/ 112403simplelife.html Sales, N J (2000, September) Hip-hop debs Vanity Fair, 350–356, 378–381 Scannell, P (2002) Big Brother as a television event Television & New Media, 3(3), 271– 282 https://doi.org/10.1177/152747640200300303 Sherrow, V (2006) Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History Greenwood Publishing Group Shils, E (1971) Tradition Comparative Studies in Society and History, 13(2), 122–159 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417500006186 Smith, K (2005, October) The Inescapable Paris Vanity Fair, 280–289, 343 Sontag, S (1967) Notes on “Camp.” Eyre & Spottiswoode Spitzack, C (1990) Confessing excess: Women and the politics of body reduction SUNY Press Sunderland, M (2015) This is how Paris Hilton fooled the entire United States of America Vice https://www.vice.com/en/article/53nvp3/paris-hilton-profile-2015-19- fragrances-and-counting-heiress Turner, G (1999) Tabloidisation, Journalism and the Possibility of Critique International Journal of Cultural Studies, 2(1), 59–76 67 Turner, G., Bonner, F., & Marshall, P D (2000) Fame games: The production of celebrity in Australia Cambridge University Press Turner, G (2004) Understanding celebrity SAGE Books Urban dictionary: Sliving (n.d.) Urban Dictionary Retrieved May 4, 2021, from https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sliving van Zoonen, L (2001) Desire and resistance: Big Brother and the recognition of everyday life Media, Culture & Society, 23(5), 669–677 https://doi.org/10.1177/016344301023005007 Ward, L M (2016) Media and sexualization: State of empirical research, 1995–2015 The Journal of Sex Research, 560–577 https://doi.org/ https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2016.1142496 Ward, P (2006) Documentary: The margins of reality Wallflower Wark, M (1999) Celebrities, culture and cyberspace: The light on the hill in a postmodern world Pluto Press Australia Wong, J (2001) Here’s looking at you: Reality TV, Big Brother, and Foucault Canadian Journal of Communication, 26(4), 33-45 Yelin, H (2020) Celebrity memoir: From ghostwriting to gender politics Springer International Publishing https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44621-5 68 ... CHAPTER PARIS HILTON AS AN ASSEMBLAGE OF PARADOXICAL PERSONAS 31 4.1 Innocent girliness and hypersexualization 31 4.2 Socialite and white trash 37 CHAPTER PARIS HILTON? ??S RELATIONSHIP WITH AUTHENTICITY:... explores the making of Paris Hilton as a postmodern celebutante To be specific, I attempt to investigate Paris Hilton? ??s public personas as they appear in various kinds of media I start with The Simple... aristocracy This, however, has become an irresistible part of Hilton? ??s appeal, as the audience is fascinated and satisfied to enjoy the publication, mockery, and condemnation of the elites and their